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OTTAWA — One of the highest-profile B.C. politicians considering a bid for the provincial NDP leadership announced Friday he won’t enter the race to replace Adrian Dix.

Nathan Cullen, who surprised political observers by placing a strong third in the 2011-12 federal leadership race, said he wants to stick to federal politics in order to help leader Tom Mulcair win more B.C. seats and boot Prime Minister Stephen Harper from office in the expected 2015 election.

Cullen’s decision is a setback for the provincial New Democratic Party that hopes to showcase a diverse group of strong candidates as it seeks to rebound from a devastating defeat in the May election, say analysts.

Cullen also had the advantage of being a fresh-faced “outsider” not touched by any baggage from the NDP’s tumultuous period in government in the 1990s, or by subsequent internal party feuds over leadership.

“There is little doubt that Cullen’s qualities would have made him a major contender, with widespread support within the B.C. NDP and also potentially throughout the electorate,” said University of Victoria professor emeritus Norman Ruff.

The 41-year-old Cullen’s withdrawal leaves a field that is expected to include Mike Farnworth, 54, who placed second in the 2011 vote that Dix won. It also opens the door wider for a younger MLA like Rob Fleming or David Eby.

Simon Fraser University political scientist Paddy Smith said Cullen would have been an important symbol in the party’s renewal.

“There’s a sense that they need to look beyond the current crowd inside the provincial beltway, and the most obvious place to look is Ottawa.”

Cullen, who had urged the party to consider holding the leadership vote in 2015, said the party’s openness to delaying the vote until then caused him to seriously consider a bid.

But timing wasn’t the deciding factor.

“I think many of the major decisions facing our country are happening at the federal level — pipelines, First Nations, the basic DNA of our economy,” he told The Vancouver Sun, adding that as one of Mulcair’s senior lieutenants he wants to help his Quebec-based leader expand the party’s West Coast strength.

“The path of governance goes through British Columbia, and that’s not just for us, that’s also for Stephen Harper. He can’t get his government without B.C.”

The provincial party is to decide the date of the leadership convention at next week’s convention in Vancouver. Dix, supported by the party’s executive, has recommended it happen in the first half of 2014.

Cullen, the MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, was one of four federal MPs mulling a switch to provincial politics.

Jinny Sims (Newton-North Delta) said Friday she won’t be a contender, while Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster) and Fin Donnelly (New Westminster-Coquitlam) are still thinking about it.

Smith said he isn’t surprised Cullen, his party’s House leader, is sticking in Ottawa.

“He’s young enough he can think of life after Tom Mulcair. I think that’s where he’s going to put his eggs.”

The University of B.C.’s Richard Johnston said Cullen, or any federal MP, wouldn’t necessarily have an easy road to the top NDP job in Victoria.

The NDP has never been welcoming to perceived outsiders like former leader and premier Mike Harcourt, who was viewed as a Liberal when he entered provincial politics, Johnston said.

Cullen would also have been suspect among many in the provincial party due to his pitch during the federal race to cooperate with the federal Liberals to beat Harper.

Cullen said he’s confident he could have put together a winning leadership campaign, and had lined up funding and support in key communities.

He also said that, as an MP in a riding dependent on natural resource development, he could have helped the party deal with allegations it is anti-development.

Despite his strong opposition to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline through his riding, Cullen said he’s had strong relationships with local mining, forestry and oil and gas companies.

Those relationships would have helped him win public trust after many voters recoiled in response to Dix’s disastrous mid-campaign decision to oppose the proposed Kinder-Morgan pipeline expansion from Alberta to Burnaby.

“Coming from a resource community would answer some of the questions I think the party needs to answer, which is, how do you develop natural resources responsibly? We didn’t have a good answer for that in the last election.”

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Nathan Cullen says he won’t seek B.C. NDP leadership (with video)

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